Spear & Shield

Spear & Shield
Chapter 11

A week into her training with Gai and Yasu was tired.

‘Five AM,’ she grumbled inwardly. ‘I’m late.’

Dawn was not a fun time to be awake. Worse yet, it was a long walk to where Gai wanted to meet…

It was a lovely little training area, nestled near the southern gate. Trees lined one side, the border wall lined the other, leaving them a good deal of privacy while he tortured her-- err, while they trained.

Yasu trudged the whole way there, dragging her tired feet, forcing herself to push through the apathy that threatened to consume her.

The day before, she had an all-day project with a team of young genins. She had been tasked with repairing a crumbling wall on the Academy’s exterior. A place, she was told, that was often used for the young students to test their newly learned jutsu. The hired genin were a group in their early teens and were devastatingly uninterested in masonry. Their work had been shoddy at best, leaving her to fix all their mistakes during their lunch break. She dismissed them early and spent another hour fixing the wall herself. 

The day, although uneventful, left her feeling very unfulfilled. 

So she continued along, dragging her feet despite her lateness, trying the whole way to smother her dampened mood.

“Good morning,” she called politely to her teacher.

Gai was in the middle of a series of balancing exercises, bending into interesting poses through deep inhales and exhales. 

He grinned down at her from the training post he perched on, “Good morning, Yasu-chan!”

As always, he was loud, greeting her with an enthusiasm she was unable to conceptualize at this ungodly hour. Instead she quietly placed her day pack down by a tree and began to go through more basic stretches. 

"Have you slept well?" he called to her, leaping down from the post.

She glanced up to see concern creasing his brow. For a moment, she recalled his devastation after knocking her unconscious the other day. He wasn’t still worried, was he?

"Hm? Oh, yeah. I mean… yeah I slept fine."

"You seem distracted," he walked up beside her with a hand on his hip, the concern lingering in his eyes.

She met his eyes from her tangled position in the grass. When had he gotten so intuitive?

"I'm just tired," she shrugged, reaching to wrap her hands around the balls of her feet.

"So you haven't been sleeping well."

"I slept fine," she repeated.

"But you just said you were tired."

"It's five in the morning!" she felt the feeling of nagging agitation pulling at the back of her neck.

He put his hand on his chin in a thoughtful manner, “So you didn’t sleep--”

“What are we working on today, Gai-sensei?” she snapped, quickly standing and appearing as ready as ever.

The sooner it started, the sooner it was over.

“Yosh!” he cheered, buying into her distraction. “Such enthusiasm! I expect no less from one of my beloved students.”

And that was the first time someone had referred to Yasu as “beloved.”

“We’re not running laps again, are we?” she groaned.

“Unfortunately no,” he sighed sadly before perking up, “I had an idea!”

“Okay… Hit me with it.”

“Not this time!” he leapt away from her, shooting back a few meters and landing gracefully on one foot. “I believe I have fully assessed your defensive ability.”

“So no more ambush attacks?” she called, the slightest bit of hope coating her voice.

“Not this time!” he affirmed once more, this time with a wink. “Instead, I would like you to deflect.”

“Deflect what--?”

She felt it coming before she saw it.

It was through pure reflex and a newly honed speed that she was able to dodge the boulder he threw at her.

“You said no more ambushes!” she cried, staring at the rock that was at least half her size. How had he thrown it so effortlessly? Where had it even come from?!

Gai smirked from across the training field, radiating pride. “Such speed! My precious student has improved so much!"

Yasu almost blushed. "How am I supposed to deflect a boulder?"

"With your defensive chakra, of course!" he preened, "I suspect your technique can be used for more than absorption. I want you to feed the force of the hit back out." He struck his fist out, "Turn it into an attack!"

Yasu stared at him, blinking a few times. "I… I hadn't thought of that.”

Truth be told, she had been trying to be coy about her little secret "talent." 

Her old sensei and genin team mates may have known about it, she was never sure. They knew she was the "tank" of the team, but none of them had ever asked how she managed. It was her secret, to develop on her own. The technique was subtle, even to chakra sensors. It was the one thing in this world she called her own.

So she was a little annoyed that Gai had figured it out so easily. On a fluke hit, no less.

But still, impressive. He's intuitive. Way more than she originally gave him credit for.

“What made you think of that?”

Gai scratched the back of his head, “I was thinking about our spar the other day. A few times when I landed a hit, you blocked and sent it back at me. I felt it.”

“Ah.”

She would have thought that fight had been pretty basic for him. He’s faced down legendary opponents, why would she be so special? 

“So I consulted one of my students--”

“You have other students?”

“Yes!” he beamed, “Hyuuga Neji! One of my finest pupils, a genius--”

“What did you tell him about me?” she asked, more curious than accusatory. 

“Why, I recounted our epic battle, of course!” he beamed, “I mentioned your technique, and he came up with a compelling theory!”

“Do tell.” She drawled, leaning against a nearby tree and propping her head up with her fist. His enthusiasm made her lips twitch up into a smile.

He put on his “cunning” face again, as if he had solved a great mystery. “Your technique involves your chakra coating your skin, muscles, and cartilage... Many have attempted to utilize similar tricks in the past to make their body hard like stone. You, however, leave the chakra loose and uncondensed. It flows to the impact area, and absorbs the hit instead of trying to deflect it. Am I right?”

Yasu pursed her lips, drawn between upset and fascinated that he had figured her secret out so easily. 

“Your chakra allows the force of the blow to diffuse safely, so your body remains unharmed in the process. Ideal against blunt, physical combat, but rather useless when it comes to kunai and weaponry.”

Yasu flinched at his curt wording, but nodded nonetheless. 

“However! I had a thought: if you’re able to control your chakra to that extent, you should be able to take the force and feed it back out to your opponent.”

Yasu dwelled on Gai’s proposition for a minute or two. She experimentally sent a wave of chakra through her arms, trying to manipulate it in a wave-like motion, but it didn’t obey. The chakra swelled at her wrists before returning to her core. 

“...How do I do it?"

His brow creased, looking thoughtful. "Well, how did you develop this technique? What are the mechanics of it?"

Yasu thought for a minute, but could only shrug, "Um… well, I don't know, really. It just... happens? No one taught me, I've been doing it since I was a kid."

"Is it a blood-limit technique?"

"I don't think so… It's more like a reflex my body adapted. It started before I even enrolled in the Academy.”

"Interesting," he hummed, face more serious than she had ever seen him before. “Although I am wondering how a young child was able to develop something so useful without actual combat and proper training."

She sighed. Of course she had come up with theories behind her technique. She never thought she would have to share them, though.

“I have three older brothers…” she admitted, “All shinobi. The oldest was a genin before I even got to the academy. Since I was the youngest, I was the one they all…” she pondered, searching for the right word, “The one they all... practiced on.”

To his credit, Gai looked uncomfortable.

“It wasn’t that bad!” she added quickly. “It’s just... we were kids. And sometimes those idiots tried out jutsus and techniques they couldn’t control. I ended up getting knocked around a lot… So I adapted.” 

At that point in her story, Gai was nearly sobbing openly, “My Dear Student! It Breaks Your Dear Sensei’s Heart to Know You Endured Such Strife!”

“Eh, I don’t think ‘strife’ is the right word…" she sighed, scratching the back of her head sheepishly. "We were just dumb kids playing ninja.”

Yasu didn't bring up the time Jiro accidentally knocked her off the roof. Or when Saburo set her hair on fire. Or the time Ichiro dropped a ten-kilogram bag of sand right on her head after she accidentally set off one of his traps.

“Your hardships have made you stronger!” he announced, eyes ablaze, “But it is my solemn vow as your sensei to never allow you to be harmed again!”

‘He doesn’t get it,’ she sighed. 'Must be an only child.'  

“So what about this ‘deflecting’ technique? Do you think you can teach me?”

His sunshine smile was answer enough. 

“Yosh!”